"Hmm?"
Upon hearing this, I couldn't help but furrow my brow, feeling the anger rising in my heart.
What's the meaning of this?
Are they treating Lao Zhang and me as suspects?
As for Lao Zhang, his face was now extremely ugly, and he coldly glanced at the old monk before speaking unkindly, "What? Do you want to fight?"
After saying this, Lao Zhang couldn't help but grip the half stick sword in his hand, implying that he was ready to fight!
What the heck is going on here? We came here to help for free, but not only have we not received any gratitude, we're now being suspected by others?
The scene before me was so similar, almost identical to the last time I and Xia Xiaoyi encountered in the police station!
What's wrong with these people? We came here to help, but did we do something wrong?
"Humph! Do you think I'm afraid of you?"
The old monk also refused to back down, snorted, and then took off the prayer beads in his hand, glaring fiercely at Lao Zhang and me.
The atmosphere became extremely tense, and a fierce battle seemed to be inevitable.
Just then, a chaotic footsteps suddenly sounded from outside the door. Looking closer, it turned out that Captain Han hurried to the scene with Huang Fatty.
"What's going on?"
Huang Fatty first glared at me aggressively, then clasped his hands and greeted the old monk respectfully, "Hello, Deputy Director Ning!"
Deputy Director Ning?
I became more suspicious. Could this old monk also be a government employee? Since when could monks become government employees? Or maybe, this person was not a monk at all?
Judging from the situation, this "Deputy Director Ning" in front of us was most likely invited by Huang Fatty. No wonder he was so overbearing. Birds of a feather flock together; this guy's behavior indeed resembled Huang Fatty's, both arrogant and overbearing.
"Hum!"
"Deputy Director Ning" was quite arrogant, never even giving Huang Fatty a second glance, and directly asked, "Did you invite these two?"
"No, no, no..."
Huang Fatty immediately waved his hand, still grinning, "I don't know them at all!"
"So, they came on their own?"
As he spoke, Deputy Director Ning visibly tightened the prayer beads in his hand. Was he really going to attack?
Seeing this, Captain Han finally couldn't sit still and hurriedly said, "I invited them!"
"Oh?"
Upon hearing this, Deputy Director Ning couldn't help but furrow his brows, then quickly relaxed them. He looked at me and Lao Zhang with interest, squinting and asked knowingly, "So, you are both practitioners as well?"
Then he nodded at Lao Zhang, "I was disrespectful earlier. Since we are all fellow practitioners, why don't we work together to resolve the trouble here?"
"Yes, yes..."
As soon as this was said, Captain Han's face lit up, taking on the role of mediator, "If the three of you can work together, that'd be great. After all..."
"Humph! Who wants to work with him?"
Before Captain Han could finish, Lao Zhang interrupted him, glanced coldly at Deputy Director Ning, and said, "This has nothing to do with me. It's none of my business, and I don't want to be involved!"
With that, Lao Zhang grabbed me without hesitation and said, "Let's go!"
With the commotion caused by "Chairman Ning," I also lost interest and didn't want to stay in this eerie place. I nodded and followed Lao Zhang directly as we left!
"You!"
Chairman Ning was obviously furious, though he didn't come forward to stop us. I clearly felt a fierce killing intent behind me.
Damn! Is he still a monk?
Is he really thinking about getting rid of me and Lao Zhang because of this?
As for the fat man, Huang, who had never been friendly with me, he let out a cold snort and said disdainfully, "Ignorant!"
"Elder!"
Seeing Lao Zhang and me leaving, Captain Han's expression also turned ugly, and he quickly caught up, apologizing repeatedly, "I'm sorry, I didn't know that Huang had actually invited people from the Qianzhou Buddhist Association!"
"Buddhist Association?"
Hearing this, Lao Zhang's brow furrowed deeper, and he stopped walking and asked instinctively, "Are you saying that the person just now works for the Religious Affairs Bureau?"
"Yes! His name is Ning Zhaoyang, and his Buddhist name seems to be Yuan Tong, but he has already left the monkhood. He is now the vice chairman of the Qianzhou Provincial Buddhist Association and also holds a position in the Provincial Religious Affairs Bureau!"
"Yuan Tong?"
I couldn't help muttering to myself, "Look at the name he's given himself, why not call himself Shen Tong? He doesn't seem like a good person at first glance!"
"Shh!"
Captain Han was startled and quickly made a hushing gesture to me, "Keep your voice down, we can't afford to offend this person..."
"Hmph!"
Seeing Captain Han's nervous look, Lao Zhang couldn't help but sneer repeatedly, "No wonder he's so arrogant, turns out he has the backing of the Religious Affairs Bureau!"